More cheering up!

Hello All,

Thanks for dropping in again, much appreciated…seems I have a few regular fans (got some comments of late too) and for that I’m very thankful. It makes me want to come back and write more. I surpassed 100 posts the other day, so thanks for sticking with me.

Apologies for the gap again, I was away last week, but here I am back again. As the weather, it looked as though things were slowing up and settling down the other day but as I sit here, the house seems to rattle! I have never heard the wind whistle quite so much over a short period of time. This in mins, I decide to break out a nice cloudscape set with a lovely pink crepuscular ray finish. For those who don’t know what a crepuscular ray is a) where have you been, I’ve explained it before and b) you don’t know what you have been missing.

The pictures are all once again taken within a day, the first when I was out on my ex-bike (it’s been superceded by something a lot faster which means I have to wear lycra to increase the top speed…or something) last Summer.

A typical summer shot across the fields; it looks dark as I used a polarizer

Not a usual framing technique for this image but it was what was presented to me at the time and I think it worked quite well. May if I cropped out the tree branch it could have looked a little better, but you all know that I hate changing pictures for the sake of it looking good. Probably why this isn’t my job!

Windswept cirrus up high and some cumulus hiding the sun, nice picture!

This is from one of my fave spots just down the road, a little later on in the day when things had started to cloud over properly and there was a rash of “popcorn” clouds (that is a term used in weather forecasting, if you don’t believe me, Google it!). You can see them creeping across in the middle of the image….

More very high cirrus here, a recurrent theme until later in the evening

The popcorn is multiplying now! No matter, there are some lovely colours being cast by the shadows and such down by the treeline. I hear some people say a good sunset is a clear evening but to me that just boooooring. I much prefer these as there’s some substance, as well as often a myriad of colour and depth to what you see….

Pesky popcorn. But at this time of the day, it adds to the scene in my opinion

Another portrait image now, don’t do these too often as they are a pain to post. This concentrates on the popcorn clouds but also I got the exposure just right to ensure I had the colour in the clouds as well as the golden colours of the crops I was standing in. For those of the farming fraternity, I used the tractor tracks to get in, don’t worry, no trampling here!

Similar to the earlier image but rotated to get a bit more context in

And here we are, the best shot of the evening by far even though I took a good 20 or 30. This one is especially for one of my biggest fans who loves a good colourful sunset, she knows who she is and I hope it is enjoyed 🙂

This image is best seen BIG to enjoy it (left click). Or I can always send you the original if you fancy? Feel free to ask!

One day the sun will return to this county, I’m sure of it! By this time of year, I’m usually out with the camera taking images of sunsets that interfere with dinner time. I know because I always used to be rushing around before or  after. This year, hardly a thing. There have been a few interesting clouds but I can only count the number of images this year in say the twenties or maybe thirties, which is probably what I’d take in one evening of a nice sunset.

Those of you who wish to grizzle about global warming, do so amongst yourselves, as I’m not a believer!

Well, on to the next subject for the next lot of pictures, I’m sure there will be something of interest for you as I remember I have a few optics and unusual clouds after the weather broke to show you, maybe even a towering cumulus or two if you are lucky. Keep stopping by, thanks again for the comments and suggestions, however I get them.

A few weather photos for a change

Hello everyone…well, the 3 or 4 people I know who look regularly!

I thought that the castles and such would be wearing a little thin in my posts now so I am opting to intersperse a few of my recent weather photos into the mix, just to keep things a bit interesting. Obviously if weather doesn’t interest you, then this will be boring, but I hope that I have managed to get a good cross-section here.

If any of you know or remember where I live as I have mentioned it before, you may realise that we have a bit of snow at the minute. Alas, the amounts aren’t fantastic so no pictures I’m afraid..the large falls have happened further east of me and I’m not making a special journey, seeing no-one seems to know how to drive in snow in the British Isles. By the way, if that Polo driver who followed me to work is reading this, I’d recommend a bit more that 3 feet between my bumper and your car when driving in snow and sleet. Eeejit.

Anyway, moving along to more pleasurable things. Piccies. Firstly, they are in no particular order, just the order I chose them in. The first picture is of the regular autumnal squalls we get here. I can get myself ready to take pictures as you can see them coming from the coast or the hills and they are quite spectacular.

A squall with a touch of a rainbow in it. Looks nice as long as you aren’t under it!

Secondly, my favourite thing to take pictures of, apart from storms and such. A nice pink sunset. This didn’t look like much at first but I found a new vantage point and managed to get a nice line of silhouette from the trees. If you look closely to the right, you can even see some shadow from the sun on the clouds themselves, which is a nice little touch that I didn’t see when I took the image 🙂

A high, pink cloud deck over Milford Haven

Next, an image I couldn’t not take, although I was caught out by the fact I was inside the house on the PC at the time, hence the lack of foreground and composure. These are some pretty high clouds (a type of cirrus per chance?) caught by a setting sun that look like brush strokes in the sky. I don’t see this very often but when I do, I think it’s lovely. It got pinker but I screwed up my shutter speed and they came out too dark so I’m not posting them!!

I imagine if I were going to attempt to sell this kind of picture, I would entitle it “Brush Strokes”

Talking of cloud shadows as I was earlier, this is one of the best I have seen for a while. A number of things just came together at the same time I would guess…a storm to the west with some pretty awesome clouds and colour, sunset and the sun at just the right angle shining through the gap. And there was also me standing waiting in the middle of a field too; man, it was cold that day. Never mind….got a good picture!

Sometimes, the timing of taking a picture can be just right…

Lastly, a regular wintry icy sky sunset for you taken from the fields out the back of the village. These are quite a common occurence around here when the sun is actually out this time of year…something which hasn’t happened for a while around my neck of the woods!

If there had been a little more of the ice somewhat high this would have created an ice pillar. Bummer 😦

Mind you, things seem to be settling down now. Once the BBC decide that the country isn’t going to go into complete meltdown for a half-inch or so of snow, it will start warming up and things will be back to normal. I’m planning a hike up the Carmarthenshire Fan to get some nice geologically themed landscapes for you all when the weather is better (for better, read warmer as I’m quite thin and need my heat if only just in single figures!)

Well, that’s me for the time being. See you in a week or so for another post of what I do not yet know. TTFN!